Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker has aggravated one of the internet’s biggest culture wars by telling a class of college graduates that one of the “most important” titles a woman can hold is homemaker.
During a commencement speech last weekend at Benedictine College, a Catholic liberal arts school in Atchison, Kansas, the NFL player railed against abortion, Pride month and Covid-19 lockdown measures.
Drawing the most viral backlash this week, however, was a section of his speech in which he addressed the female graduates specifically — telling them that it’s women who have had “the most diabolical lies” told to them.
“How many of you are sitting here now, about to cross this stage, and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career? Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world,” Butker said. “But I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
The criticisms that followed took aim at Butker as well as the NFL.
“Hey @NFL — If you want to continue to grow your female fan base and any other marginalized group (straight white men are already watching your product), come get your boy,” wrote Lisa Guerrero, a former NFL sideline reporter and now an investigative journalist for “Inside Edition.”
He went on to tell the graduates that his wife would agree that her life “truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.” It is her embrace of this role, he said, that made his own professional success possible.
Butker’s comments share similarities with some of the more extreme ideas around gender roles that have gained traction in communities that promote “tradwife” lifestyles or other relationship dynamics that center on traditional gender roles.
“Listen, there’s nothing wrong with his wife being a homemaker. Homemakers are wonderful, that’s not the point,” filmmaker Michael McWhorter, known by his more than 6 million TikTok followers as TizzyEnt, said in a video response. “The point is he seemed to be acting as if you should be ashamed if you don’t want to be a homemaker, or, ‘I know what you really want to do is just stay home and have babies.’”
The speech was the latest incident to add fuel to the flames of this increasingly vocal cultural battle, much of which is playing out online. While many prominent right-wing men have voiced such beliefs before, they’re usually confined to internet forums, podcasts and other online communities where these ideologies thrive.
A spokesperson for Butker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Benedictine College and the Kansas City Chiefs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the NFL told People Magazine that Butker “gave a speech in his personal capacity” and his “views are not those of the NFL as an organization.”
“The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger,” a spokesperson told the publication.
